Outrage as team plays hours after striker plummeted to death

There has been widespread outrage as footballers were made to play despite a police investigation into the tragic death of a teammate.

Football fans in China were outraged by Zhejiang FC’s decision to go ahead with a league match hours after the death of their Gabon international striker Aaron Boupendza.

Police have ruled out foul play in the death of the 28-year-old, who died after falling from the 11th floor of a building in the eastern city of Hangzhou on Thursday (AEDT).

Boupendza’s Hangzhou-based club went ahead with a home Chinese Super League fixture later on Wednesday against Meizhou Hakka, sparking grief and anger from fans.

“Shouldn’t this match have been postponed?” one user wrote on the X-like social media platform Weibo.

“Why didn’t they postpone the match? The Chinese Super League is really very amateur,” another posted on WeChat.

The match, which ended 2-2, was played in a sombre atmosphere with none of the club’s other foreign players taking the field.

A fan holds a T-shirt with the name and number of Gabon international striker Aaron Boupendza. Photo by AFP and China OUT.

Fans chanted Boupendza’s name, held up his shirt and lit up phone torches, and after the final whistle Zhejiang’s players and staff approached fans in an act of collective mourning.

Zhejiang’s emotional captain Cheng Jin struggled to answer questions before cutting short his post-match TV interview.

“I’m sorry, it’s not that I don’t respect you. I don’t have anything I really want to say,” he said.

Zhejiang’s Spanish head coach Raul Caneda Perez said that there was “nothing to say about the game” at his post-match press conference “Today is not for talking about football,” he said, through an interpreter. “Football should not be discussed in this context.” Hangzhou police confirmed Boupendza’s death and said they had been called to an incident at 1.14pm on Wednesday local time.

Footballer Aaron Boupendza playing in America. Photo by Azael Rodriguez/Getty Images.

Police said they “ruled out a criminal case” after investigations which included conducting interviews and reviewing video footage.

Boupendza was taken to hospital, but efforts to revive him failed, the police added.

Zhejiang FC released a statement on Boupendza’s death after the match and said they were “fully cooperating with the relevant authorities to carry out the investigation”.

“All the club’s staff send their deepest condolences to his family,” the club said.

The Chinese Football Association (CFA) said in a statement on Thursday that it was “deeply saddened by (Boupendza’s) unfortunate passing” and sent “sincere condolences to his family and friends”.

This picture shows flowers at a makeshift memorial site for Gabon international striker Aaron Boupendza outside Zhejiang FC's headquarters in Hangzhou. Photo by AFP.

“Foreign footballers are an important part of the development of Chinese professional football. We will give further care to the physical and mental health of all football players,” the CFA said.

Gabon’s national football association, who announced Wednesday that Boupendza had died in a statement on X, said: “Aged 28, Boupendza leaves us with the memory of a great striker.” Gabonese president-elect Brice Oligui Nguema also took to X to add his condolences.

“It is with immense sadness that I learn of the tragic death of Aaron Boupendza, a talented centre-forward who brought honour to Gabonese football,” he posted.

Former Arsenal superstar Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang also shared a public tribute to his former teammate:

“I don’t have the words. Rest in peace my brother,” he posted on social media.

Originally published as Outrage as team plays hours after striker plummeted to death